HeresTomWithTheWeather

Chip Rosenthal has been doing a good job getting the word out about the Open Document Formats Bill (HB1794).

Complaining about apathy and ignorance about politics is second nature, but it is obvious that things are changing and this would be a catalyst for a new renaissance of participation.



Open document formats is also a smart business decision. Locking our government into proprietary formats often means that Texas tax money will not be going to Texas businesses.

According to Intellectual Property Watch...

Since free software allows local businesses to adapt software to local needs, and does not require the payment of royalties to the original author, it allows local businesses to provide “deep support” which is of higher value than the “shallow support” provided for proprietary software. When problems arise with proprietary software they can only be fixed by the proprietor, limiting the role of local small businesses. With free software on the other hand, a local business is limited only by its skill levels, not by access to the code or the right to change it. Not only can much more value be generated locally, it can also lead to wider recognition for local innovators since improvements can be fed back to the global market.

I can't think of any reasons why not to do this.

Rich Vázquez and I presented "Open Source Currency" (slides) at Barcamp Austin last night. Rich is the technical lead for the Austin Time Exchange (photo by Giovanni Gallucci).

Update: Rich's first post to Open Source Currency.

Johannes informs us that Wordpress does OpenID. You may recall that I asked Matt Mullenweg about this last August during his presentation at whurley's Barcamp here in Austin:

during his talk, Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress, acknowledged the near impossibility of integrating applications because each uses a different authentication system. I asked what he thinks about decentralized identity solutions like OpenID. He said that it seems like there's not enough incentive for players (like Wordpress) to cooperate.

Yesterday, jonl noted that a venue has been chosen for Barcamp Austin II.

New England's New Currency